Thus far, the concept of VAM–or value-added measurement–has an unbroken record of failure. Wherever it has been tried, it has proven to be inaccurate and unstable. Teacher and student records are erroneous. Teachers are judged based on students they never taught. VAM demoralizes teachers, who understand they are being judged for factors over which they have little or no control.

The major perpetrators of this great fraud are Bill Gates, who bet hundreds of millions of dollars on the proposition that test scores could be a major factor in identifying bad teachers and firing them, and Arne Duncan, who required states to use VAM if they wanted to be eligible to get a share of his $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund.

Yet a third perpetrator was Jeb Bush, whose love affair with data is unbounded. Bush went from state to state selling “the Florida miracle,” which supposedly proved that testing and accountability were the keys to solving America’s educational problems.

One of Jeb’s acolytes was Hannah Skandera, who was chosen as Secretary of Education in Néw Mexico but was never confirmed because of her lack of classroom credentials. As Secretary-designate, she sought to import the Florida model of testing and accountability.

When the state released its new teacher evaluation ratings, teachers and students showed up at the Albuquerque school board meeting to complain about errors. Teachers talked about missing and incomplete data. One student said he was part of a team that placed first in the state in civics, yet he failed his end-of-course government exam.

“James Phillips teaches calculus to Advanced Placement students at Albuquerque High School. He described how the previous week had seen him publicly praised by board member Marty Esquivel, who called him the best math teacher in New Mexico. Just days later, Phillips was notified that the PED had also ranked him “minimally effective.”

“Wendy Simms-Small, a parent of three APS students who’d helped organize the day’s rally, said she started getting active after hearing rumors that hundreds of teachers were planning on leaving the school system.

“I got curious and wanted to find out why,” she said. “As a member of this community over many years, I have never seen the demoralization of professional individuals like this ever before.” She said the pressure of testing had also taken a toll on her kids.

“Private corporations reap great rewards when school systems implement standardized testing,” said Simms-Small, “so it’s my belief that they’re motivated financially to turn our children into pawns for profit.”

At some point, the data-obsessed federal and state policy makers will have to concede that they were wrong or face a massive parent-teacher rebellion. They are literally destroying the nation’s schools with their mad ideas. It is time for a revival of common sense or a public discussion of the true meaning of education.